


Sleeping beauty

by Eknodine (Eknomind)



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood, Car Accidents, Coma, Could be platonic, Fluff, Hospitals, M/M, Or romantic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-06
Updated: 2016-05-09
Packaged: 2018-06-06 17:43:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6763849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eknomind/pseuds/Eknodine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sebastian shouldn’t have been speaking on a phone while driving.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Guilty

**Author's Note:**

> Yay first F1 fic ever! Also, first fic in English. English is not my first language and this has not been beta read, so I'm open to any critique over that matter as well.

Sebastian shouldn’t have been speaking on a phone while driving. He was in the middle of listening to Hanna’s story of a glorious date with some Finnish girl when a figure appeared out of nowhere in front of his car. The collision was inevitable as he had only one hand on the steering wheel and the distance between his car and the man was too short to make a full stop on the slippery road. Sebastian couldn’t stop himself from screaming as he heard the soft thud and saw blood splatters on his shattered windscreen.

That was one week ago. A week Sebastian had spent in hospital drowning in his own guilt and listening to the beeping of the monitors connected to the John Doe unlucky enough to cross paths with him. The man had been comatose ever since the accident. He had blonde hair, pale skin and tattoos on his wrists. Sebastian had spent hours investigating them. Unfortunately his face was too swollen for any of his features to be recognizable. No one had come asking after him and he hadn’t been carrying any documents. Sebastian was awoken from his slumber as the doctor came in for his routine checks. As usual, Doctor Wolff paid no attention to Sebastian who had been sitting in the corner ever since he got out of the police station having given his statement. 

Two weeks after the accident came news of a Finnish man gone missing in the area. He had not checked out of his hotel nor had he returned to Finland as planned. Apparently he had left his dog to an ex-girlfriend and had not retrieved him. Soon enough Sebastian’s victim was identified as Kimi Räikkönen, a Finnish hockey player who had been in Switzerland negotiating a transfer to the Swiss league. Sebastian spent the next few days googling everything he could on Kimi. Apparently Kimi was one of the brightest stars of the future in hockey. This made Sebastian feel double the shame. “I’m sorry I ruined your career,” he whispered to Kimi before returning to his usual spot in the corner. Kimi didn’t react. He never did.

“C’mon Seb, you can’t spend rest of your life in a hospital moping after a guy you don’t even know!” It was Hanna. Sebastian had spent the third week speaking to Kimi. Telling him about his life. Apologizing. Crying. He felt a strange bond to the Finn even if he hadn’t moved an inch during the whole time. Kimi’s bruises and cuts were finally healing and Sebastian could see that Kimi was a handsome man even now that he had lost some weight for having been immobilized so long. “Hanna, this really isn’t one of the nights I’d like to be a third wheel in your lesbian date with Minttu,” Sebastian answered bluntly. This had been the first time he had seen Hanna face to face since the accident. Hanna crossed her arms. Despite her small size she could be very persuasive when the need arose. “Sebastian, I’d really like you to meet her. She isn’t staying here for long you know.” Sebastian really had no way out of this. Hanna had kept calling him about Minttu every day, telling him the umpteenth time how awesome she was.

“So, um, what are you doing in Switzerland? Other than Hanna of course,” Sebastian asked Minttu with a cheeky grin on his face and took a large gulp of beer. “Well, my ex has a great talent of getting into trouble and managed to get hit by a car or something. I’m here to get his stuff and then I’ll go back to Finland as I’ll have to figure out what to do with his dog,” Minttu answered like it was nothing. Sebastian nearly spilled his beer and earned a curious look from Hanna in the process. “Hit by a car? When was that?” he asked hastily. This time Sebastian did not only spill his beer but also managed to send his glass rolling off the table and breaking within contact with the floor. “Sebastian, what’s wrong?” this time Hanna seemed more concerned than annoyed. “Minttu, I’m so sorry. I’m the idiot who hit Kimi.” Both girls stared at him wide-eyed.

Minttu had opted not to visit Kimi in the hospital before her return to Finland. They had exchanged numbers though, so that Sebastian could keep her up to date on Kimi’s condition. By the end of week four, the doctors were being quite pessimistic. Kimi was breathing mostly on his own, but other than that there had been no progress whatsoever. Susie, the doctor in charge of Kimi’s treatment, told him to be prepared that Kimi might never wake up. Sebastian spent the next night crying and tracing Kimi’s tattoos. He made a mental note to ask Minttu, why Kimi had opted to get the word “Iceman” tattooed on his arm.

By Christmas Eve Sebastian had made an odd friendship with Minttu, texting her questions about Kimi and Minttu texting him questions about Hanna. Kimi had lost a lot of weight but had still kept fighting. Nurses had started to call him the Iceman after his tattoo. According to Minttu, he had gotten the name from his coach after falling asleep shortly before an important match and scoring a hat trick. Sebastian no longer slept at the hospital but kept visiting Kimi every day knowing well that he was the only one to visit Kimi the entire time. He felt a bit stupid having arrived in an extremely Christmas-y sweater, a gift from Daniel, bearing a gift wrapped poorly as he had opted to do it himself. “A little something from me,” Sebastian smiled as he placed the gift on Kimi’s nightstand.

Sebastian woke to the ringing of his phone on Christmas day. He considered just ignoring it, but his curiosity got the better of him. “Mr Vettel? I think he’s asking for you,” voice on the phone said. Sebastian blinked his eyes, confused. “Um, I mean, ‘whichever idiot gave him a Red Bull miniature car’, must be you, right?” As the sudden realization hit him, Sebastian sprung up from his bed and was half way through looking for clothes before he realized that the person on the phone was still waiting for an answer.


	2. Sorry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian is being stupid, Kimi is being Kimi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I ended up writing this so why the hell not update it as well. My apologies to any who end up procrastinating because of this. I know I did.

Sebastian was standing nervously in front of Kimi’s hospital room. He had grown comfortable with the relationship he had been having with Kimi for the past few months, but now he was scared to start over, to really meet Kimi instead of hearing about him from Minttu. He was also worried that Kimi wouldn’t like him and scared that Kimi wouldn’t forgive him. He had almost convinced himself to stay away from Kimi when Doctor Susie appeared out of nowhere and pushed him forcefully into the room and showed him thumbs up before abandoning him to meet his fate. Sebastian turned around slowly before looking into Kimi’s eyes for the first time. Kimi’s eyes were pale, icy green, staring blatantly at Sebastian. His face stayed expressionless while Sebastian took his time to look at him properly. After few minutes of rather awkward silence Kimi opened his mouth. “You’ve been visiting me.” It wasn’t a question. Kimi’s voice was low and monotonous. Sebastian dragged his feet around awkwardly before answering. “Yeah, since day one.” Kimi lifted his right eyebrow indicating that he expected a bit more thorough explanation. “Um, I’m the one who run you over. Sorry about that,” Sebastian explained feeling more awkward as the silence dragged on. Kimi stayed infuriatingly expressionless the whole time making Sebastian worry that he may have caused some permanent damage to Kimi’s facial nerves. Finally Kimi turned his head to look at his nightstand where the little toy Red Bull was. “I gave you that. I really like Red Bull and watch the races. Do you like racing? I thought that since no one else visited you I should get you a present and…” Sebastian’s rambling was cut off by a soft laugh from Kimi. “Idiot,” Kimi said. “I prefer Ferrari”. Sebastian blushed bright red, dragging another laugh out of the not-so icy Finn. 

“Kimi is getting out of the Hospital soon,” Sebastian tells Hanna and Minttu. Minttu had agreed with Kimi to give the dog away and moved in with Hanna a few weeks after Christmas. “Does he have somewhere to go?” Minttu asked Sebastian. “I don’t know. It’s not like he likes to share too much of his life. Does he have someone in Finland to help him?” Sebastian says and Minttu shakes her head before looking at Hanna. “We are not adopting your weird ex,” Hanna tells her and crosses her arms. “Kimi is not weird! He’s just himself,” Sebastian tries to defend Kimi, but he gets sceptical looks from the other side of the table. “Do I need to remind you that you’ve spent months talking to a comatose person?” Hanna says with an evil grin on her face. 

“You are coming home with me,” Sebastian informs Kimi on the day he’s getting out of the hospital. “You know, you don’t have to do this. I can manage on my own,” Kimi tries to convince Sebastian, true to his Finnish nature. “Nice try Kimi, but I’ve yet to apologize you properly for getting you into this mess in the first place,” Sebastian says, refusing to back off. Sebastian starts packing Kimi’s belongings into a bag he brought with him and feels another sting of guilt handling the large packs of medicine instructed to Kimi. Sebastian knew Kimi was only putting on a brave face so that he would be left alone but in reality Kimi was suffering from severe headaches and epileptic seizures due to the accident. The doctors were united in their opinion that there was no way Kimi could get back to hockey and it must have hurt more than Kimi would ever admit, not even to Sebastian. Sebastian hated it when Kimi used his iceman-role on him.

Kimi had now been living in Sebastian’s spare bedroom for a week, not leaving the house once. Sebastian had learned that Kimi liked his own space, sometimes to ridiculous extent. Kimi also liked to sleep a lot and was impossible to wake up unless bribed with food. One night Sebastian was rolling around in his bed, not able to get to sleep. Sighing, he got out of bet to get something to drink. In the hallway he noticed a light gleaming under Kimi’s door. Apparently even the sleeping beauty had trouble sleeping every now and then. Sebastian was on his way back from the kitchen, carefully balancing a glass of water when he heard a sniff coming from Kimi’s room. Carefully, he opened the door to see Kimi curled on the floor, crying. Sebastian let out a few German curses and rushed next to Kimi, setting down on his knees. He set the glass on the floor before touching Kimi’s shoulder. “Hey, you okay there?” Sebastian asked Kimi, worry clear in his voice. No answer. “Do you need something?” Sebastian asked, not really expecting an answer this time. At this point he had no other option than to grab Kimi’s shoulders and turn him over. Kimi’s eyes were shut and his usually blank expression had changed to one of excruciating pain. Quickly Sebastian rummaged through Kimi’s packets of medicine, picking the one described for headaches. It soon became obvious that Kimi could not even sit on his own but with Seb’s help he managed to swallow the pill along with some water from Seb’s glass. Sebastian took Kimi to his own room for the night as the Finn was in no shape to take care of himself.

Sebastian woke up in the morning, surprised to find the other man in his bed, before the memory of last night came back to him. Much to his surprise the Finn was awake as well, observing him quietly, but his face broke into a wide smile when Sebastian looked at him. “Kimi?” Sebastian asked. “Hmm?” Kimi raised his eyebrow, smile gone. “Why don’t you hate me?” Sebastian asked the question that had been bothering him for weeks. He swallowed the urge to laugh at the Finn’s confused expression, “I mean, I destroyed your life, I was stupid and you paid the price for it. You should hate me.” Kimi gave him a sad smile. “Would it make it any better if I hated you? If I hated you, would you be happy? Would you feel that you got the punishment you deserved? Would you be able to get on with your life without having to take care of me?” Kimi had no idea where those questions were coming from, where his anger was coming from. Sebastian ducked his head, ashamed. “You are right, Kimi. I’m being stupid. I don’t want you to hate me,” he muttered. “Good, because I’m not sure I could,” Kimi told him, smiling, “hate you, that is.” Sebastian looked up at him and pulled Kimi in for an awkward hug. “Thanks.”


	3. Revelations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian is getting a bit too protective of Kimi, to which Kimi responds badly. Also, awesome Minttu is awesome.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m so sorry, this is getting angstier by the minute, but I will fix it somehow. I hope.
> 
> Explanations of weird Finnish curses after this chapter.

During the few months Kimi had lived at Sebastian’s, things had been going pretty smooth. He still had to go to the hospital every now and then for controls. Sebastian had taken a higher paying job that required longer working hours, in order to support them both. The situation was not ideal, but there was no way Sebastian would allow Kimi to start working, especially as he knew Kimi had no proper education, having dropped out to play professional hockey, and could not get a suitable job either way. He was a bit hesitant to leave Kimi home on his own though. He could remember Minttu warning him about Kimi’s talent of getting in trouble and he hadn’t forgotten the night he found Kimi lying helpless on the floor either. Sebastian sighed and supported his head on his hands, entertaining himself for a minute thinking about how Kimi would react, if he hired a babysitter to look after Kimi. He was just about to get back to work, when his phone started buzzing. The smile on his face disappeared as he recognized the caller and rushed out of the office.

Sebastian could find Kimi easily by following the stream of Finnish curses, which turned into an uncharacteristically delighted cheer when he saw Sebastian. “Mr. Räikkönen, I’m sorry but with your condition we cannot let you…” a young doctor tried to explain, but was cut short by Kimi. “Fuck my condition! Can’t you see I’m fine? No big deal! Vittu, I need to get home before Seb does. Uskomavitumatonta! Oh, hey Seb!” Sebastian smiled to himself. Kimi seemed to be back to his own grumpy self. “Hey Kims. I didn’t quite catch that last one, you sure it was Finnish?” Sebastian laughed before letting his smile melt as he turned towards the doctor. “What happened?” he asked, ignoring Kimi’s quiet protests, which was easy as Kimi had gone past Sebastian’s limited skills in Finnish. “Well, we think it was an epileptic seizure. Another customer called an ambulance, but the seizure was mostly over when it got there.” Sebastian turned to look at Kimi who had the decency to look ashamed. “Another customer? Kimi, where were you? And don’t say groceries, because you know well that that is my responsibility.” His question was answered though as the doctor’s foot hit something under Kimi’s bed and a full bottle of vodka rolled to Sebastian’s feet. Sebastian looked a few times between the bottle and Kimi before he exploded. “Kimi what were you thinking? You know you can’t drink alcohol with your meds. And I don’t like you wandering off exactly because something like this could happen!” Kimi stupidly attempted to just shrug it off. “I was bored. Haven’t been out for weeks because you are always working.” “Listen Kimi, I know it’s frustrating but…” Sebastian was cut off by Kimi, “No, Sebastian. You listen to me. You cannot protect me from everything, you cannot hold me prisoner. I’m so fed up with this hevonpaska I’ve been dealing with just because I like you. But you cannot own me just because you feel like you are obligated to protect me after getting me into this this mess in the first place!” Kimi stood up suddenly, but the doctor seemed to be unwilling to get in his way and instead let him rip off his tubes and monitors. Sebastian tried to reach for him but Kimi shrugged him off and maneuvered his way out of the ER with greater agility than what one would expect from someone suffering from serious brain damage. 

Hanna and Minttu were having a nice, but an uneventful evening in one of the bars in the city. Hanna was just about to suggest they continued the night in a more private setting when Minttu’s eyes widened as she noticed something at the bar behind Hanna. “Is that Kimi? Yes it is Kimi! Let’s go see him!” The girls abandoned their empty glasses and made their way to the bar where Kimi was trying to convince the bartender to give him any kind of alcohol even though he had no money on him. “Hey Kimi, what are you doing here and without Sebastian?” Minttu put her hand on Kimi’s shoulders and Kimi jerked, surprised. “Trying to get a drink, what does it look like? Either of you care to help me out?” Minttu shook her head. “No luck here Kimster. I thought you were not allowed to drink anyway. Does Sebastian know you’re here?” a flash of pain shot through Kimi’s face at the mention of his roommate’s name. “Sebastian can vetää käteen for all I care,” Kimi huffed, “and if you are going to bother me about him, you can fuck off as well.” Minttu offered an apologetic smile to Hanna before crouching down to Kimi’s level. “Okay. You don’t want to talk about it. Fine. Remember when I promised to tell you when you are acting like an ass? You are doing that right now. Stop acting like a child and we won’t tell Seb. Deal?” Kimi nodded. “Good. Now get off your ass, you can sleep on our couch this night.”

Kimi woke up with his neck and head aching like hell. Minttu, who had always had a sensitivity for Kimi’s state of awareness set a cup of coffee on the table next to Kimi and whispered like a conspirator “Good morning sunshine. Don’t tell Seb.” Kimi grunted as a thanks and closed his eyes hoping he could go back to sleep, but it was impossible as Hanna was making a lot of noise preparing breakfast while kissing Minttu at the same time. As time passed it became clear that Kimi had no intentions of getting up let alone back home, but more worryingly he also refused to eat anything and had left his coffee untouched. They had tried giving him aspirin but it was evident they were getting nowhere with what their medicine cabinet could offer. Finally Minttu decided to go and get Kimi’s meds from Sebastian’s to which Kimi agreed after Minttu promised him not to tell Sebastian where he was or let him follow her. “Have it your way then but you are going to tell me everything after I come back with your entire pharmacy worth of drugs.”

What Minttu didn’t tell Kimi was that she had texted Sebastian already last night, knowing that otherwise Sebastian would have gnawed his fingernails completely by morning, had he not known of Kimi’s whereabouts. Sebastian wasn’t surprised the lightest when Minttu appeared behind his door demanding he surrendered the drugs immediately. “Minttu, what is going on? Why is Kimi not with you? This is my fault, isn’t it?” Sebastian forgot to breathe as he continued on rambling. “Calm down. Kimi is fine, I think. He just needs some painkillers. I promise I’ll get him home as soon as he stops being childish. Speaking of his tantrum, what did you do to get him so mad? I remember him being this unreasonable just once before and that didn’t end well,” Minttu chuckled at the memory “the fallout was quite spectacular, though I don’t think his coach found the whole inflatable dolphin thing as funny as I did.” Sebastian couldn’t help but laugh a little at Kimi’s teenage shenanigans. Minttu stayed quiet for a while before staring at Sebastian in realization. “You were being a control freak, weren’t you?” Sebastian was preparing his defence but Minttu spoke before he could “No point denying that Sebastian. Kimi only acts this way when he feels someone is trying to take control of his life. Except this time it’s worse because he likes you. I’m pretty sure he didn’t like Ron”. With that Minttu made her way out of Sebastian’s apartment, leaving behind a very puzzled German.

Against all odds, Kimi had managed to fall asleep while waiting for Minttu to return. He jerked awake when Minttu threw his drugs on his chest. “Guess what Kimi? I think I solved all your problems,” Minttu informed him. Kimi obviously didn’t believe her. “Don’t look at me like that. This is just like with Ron”. Kimi shook his head but stopped quickly and made a dive for his painkillers instead. “You are acting like an ass because you feel like Sebastian is restricting your life too much, but you are denying it, because you like him. Admit it. You like him”. “I don’t. He ran me over, remember?” Kimi tried to retaliate. “Yes, and if that was anyone else, you would have punched his teeth in. Or worse. Guess what? He likes you too”. Minttu decided she had done enough good for one day and left Kimi on the couch deep in thought. After about an hour she heard Kimi calling her from the living room. “Minttu, I need to get home. NOW!” Minttu smiled to herself and ran to help Kimi off the couch. Those two idiots would be fine as long as she looked after them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised.
> 
> Uskomavitumatonta - Un-fucking-believable (Funny fact: it got more popular after Iron Sky came out)  
> Hevonpaska - Bullshit (lit. Horse's shit)  
> Vetää käteen - to go fuck oneself (lit. to pull to a hand aka jerk off.)
> 
> I like to think that Kimi is being creative with his cursing and my proof to that is that one video where he crashes in some rally and yells "voi vittujen kevät" (lit. the spring of cunts) without either realizing or caring that he's being filmed.


	4. Confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian is nosy, Kimi doesn't respond well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last drama chapter, I promise.

Sebastian was still deep in thought when he heard the door open and close as Kimi entered the apartment. He opted to keep his head pressed to his hands, not wanting to see the hurt look in Kimi’s eyes. He was surprised when Kimi pulled out a chair opposite to him and initiated the conversation for the first time ever. “Sebastian, I’m sorry. I know I said some hurtful things and acted like a child,” whatever Sebastian was expecting, this for certain was not it, “I know you acted the way you did because you care about me”. Kimi’s voice broke and Sebastian realized that Kimi was crying. He felt awful instantly. Kimi was not one to cry easily, he usually just kept everything to himself, which was worrying from time to time as Kimi was also very emotional person. Sebastian lifted his head and locked his eyes with Kimi’s green ones. “I do care about you. I’m sorry I tried to restrict your life. I understand that I cannot protect you from everything. I’m sorry I hurt you”. Great, now he got himself crying as well. He pulled Kimi into a wet embrace from which he didn’t break free before he felt the Finn laughing against him. Kimi’s ability to switch between emotions was sometimes infuriating and almost always destroying the mood. Sebastian shot an angry glare at Kimi. “You do realize we’ve both been played?” Kimi asked Sebastian, whose angry glare changed into one of confusion. “Minttu,” Kimi added as if that would explain everything. It took Sebastian a good while to understand what Kimi was laughing at, but in the end he had to admit, that Kimi was pretty bright for an uneducated jock with serious brain-damage.

“Kimi?” Sebastian asked carefully. The Finn was sat at the table, drawing. His doctor had recommended it as a form of therapy, but Kimi’s drawing abilities had taken Sebastian completely by surprise. At least until he found out that Kimi had designed his tattoos himself. Kimi grunted in acknowledgment, letting the German know it was okay to continue. “I just wanted to ask you, um, who is Ron? Minttu mentioned him and that you didn’t like him?” Kimi huffed at Sebastian’s awkwardness and then stayed silent for a good while, forming his answer. “Ron was a hockey coach of mine. Way back. A control freak. I didn’t get along with him and he didn’t give me the play time I deserved. Switched teams and won the championship just to rile him up”. Of course Kimi would be best motivated by revenge. Sebastian considered leaving it there but he just couldn’t know that he had gotten the Finn to talk, “Minttu mentioned an inflatable dolphin. Care to share?” Kimi scratched the back of his head awkwardly before answering. “I don’t know what happened. I was drunk. The reason I got drunk though was Ron being control freak once again. I got annoyed, and drunk just to get back at him. On hindsight, not one of my best plans. Anyway from what I’ve gathered I apparently went to a strip club, got kicked out of there, got an inflatable dolphin and passed out clutching. Unfortunately, someone managed to get a photo of me and the next day it was all over the newspapers,” Kimi winced at the memory. “We lost some sponsors because of that. Ron was furious and the whole team hated me because their salaries were late without the sponsor money. Also, no one was interested in the team anyway after that. Everyone wanted to just talk about me and my drunken adventures. I screwed thing up just because I couldn’t swallow my pride and do as I was told. I never learned that”. Kimi stopped talking and opted to stare in the distance instead. Sebastian could see pain in his eyes and knew there was more to the story than Kimi had told him. He decided, however, not to prod any deeper as Kimi could easily get angry at him again, if he felt like Sebastian was pushing into his personal space.

As time passed, their apartment became covered in Kimi’s drawings. Kimi kept saying that they weren’t that special, but Sebastian insisted on hanging each and every one of them. He liked especially the pair of F1 cars Kimi had drawn while watching the Grand Prix. The Ferrari and the Red Bull were hanging proudly in their living room. They were the first thing anyone entering the flat could see and Sebastian took weird comfort in that. The drawings somehow symbolised the fact that Kimi belonged to this home just as much as Sebastian did. This was one of the rare times Sebastian was home alone, Kimi still didn’t go out much, but he had made an exception when Minttu had come and dragged him out of the apartment. Kimi’s art book caught his eye. The Finn never let him look at the works drawn in that one, and usually hid the book so that Sebastian couldn’t try and look in secret. Today, Kimi had had no chance to do that and the book was lying on their coffee table. Sebastian took a deep breath and grabbed the book. At first he didn’t understand, why Kimi would feel the need to hide the book from him. First few pages were covered with tribals and other tattoo designs. Then he turned another page and was surprised to see his own name written there. He felt his cheeks getting red when he realised that it was a tattoo design. Kimi actually thought he was important enough to be written on the Finn’s pale skin. Sebastian quickly flipped through the rest of the pages, seeing multiple sketches of his own face. Based on the scribbles and crossed out drawings, it seemed Kimi hadn’t been satisfied with any of them. Suddenly Sebastian felt all dirty for snooping around something so personal and was just about to put the book back to the table, when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Kimi grabbed the book out of Sebastian’s hands as the German turned to look at him. “Kimi, I didn’t notice you! Um, I can explain,” Sebastian began but Kimi had already thrown an angry look at him, walked to his own room and locked the door.

Kimi hadn’t drawn anything for weeks. Sebastian had been worried at first, but after talking with Minttu, he was convinced that this was Kimi’s way of getting a revenge. If Kimi wanted him to be worried, he would completely refuse to be affected. Sebastian came home one evening after work to see Kimi standing in the hallway dressed in his coat and carrying his backpack. Sebastian cleared his throat to get the Finn’s attention. Kimi's’ face was expressionless and unlike before, it stayed that way when their gazes met. Sebastian’s heart sank. “Kimi, what are you doing?” Sebastian questioned.  
“What does it look like? I’m leaving,” Kimi answered, his monotone voice cold and sarcastic.  
“Why, what’s wrong? Has something happened?” Sebastian’s brain had gone to override. He had to stop Kimi.  
“Because, you won’t leave me be. You try to control everything, you snoop around my stuff. You never listen to me,” Kimi said, every word designed to sting, “I need to have a life of my own and I can’t have that with you”. Sebastian tried to reach for Kimi’s arm, but Kimi shrugged him off. The Finn walked out of the door and as it closed, Sebastian allowed himself to crash to the floor. Before he could really get into his self-pitying, he heard a loud thud coming from the stairway. Kimi. Sebastian ran down the stairs until he found Kimi lying against the wall, eyes shut and breath shallow. “Kimi, have you been taking your meds? Where are they? Talk to me!” Sebastian tried to shake Kimi into cooperation, but all he got was a sharp gasp of pain. Sebastian tried to calm down and think. It was unlikely that Kimi would have left his drugs behind, so they must have been in his backpack. The bag was nowhere to be seen though. Sebastian closed his eyes. The thud! Kimi had obviously not fallen down, but maybe he had dropped his bag down the stairs. Sebastian found Kimi’s bag from the ground floor, indicating that Kimi must have dropped it over the railing. Sebastian pushed away the thought of Kimi potentially going the same way and ran back up. 

Sebastian had miraculously managed to carry Kimi back to the apartment and to his bed. He decided to empty Kimi’s backpack so that Kimi wouldn’t be able to sneak out without making a noise. Kimi had had a water bottle in his bag, but it had broken in the fall and now everything was soaked wet. From the front pocket he found a neatly folded piece of paper. He unfolded it, holding his breath. It was a nearly photorealistic drawing of Sebastian. Apparently Kimi had finally gotten it right and didn’t want to forget him completely. Sebastian turned to look at Kimi and almost screamed when he noticed that the Finn wasn’t quite as unconscious as he had thought. Kimi’s eyes were open and he had a soft smile on his lips. "I'm sorry, I was acting childishly. Again. I appreciate your help and care," Kimi said, looking sheepishly at the German. Sebastian took a deep breath; it was now or never. “I love you,” he whispered. “You are an idiot,” Kimi told him, “but I love you too”. Sebastian grinned happily as he pressed a soft kiss on Kimi’s forehead.


	5. Choices

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Kimi's turn to be difficult. Seb loves it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, a happy ending as promised! Somehow my writing changed along with the mood so this doesn't really look like it's part of the same fic as the first chapter.

“Morning!” Sebastian greeted Kimi in the morning as the Finn made his way to the kitchen, eyes barely open. Kimi mumbled something that probably consisted entirely of Finnish curses. There was no way of getting anything coherent out of Kimi before his morning coffee. “I’m glad you stayed”. Another grunt from Kimi. “You were right. I can be quite over possessive. I shouldn’t have looked into your book anyway”. Kimi gave him an amused look and shrugged his shoulders. When the Finn finally turned around properly, it struck Sebastian that Kimi wasn’t wearing a shirt like he usually did. Then he noticed a familiar pattern on Kimi’s lower stomach. Sebastian reached to Kimi and started tracing the black lines of the new tattoo. The image was kind of smoky, with fiery letters that formed Sebastian's name and barely noticeable wings behind it. “It is a phoenix. Life born of fire and all that,” Kimi explained. Sebastian blinked up at him, confused. Kimi sighed. “Before I met you, I had no one. You may have taken away my career, but you gave me a different life. You are the fire, I am the phoenix”. Sebastian laughed at that. “You were always the pretty one anyway,” he said. “You know Seb, I don’t know what I need you for. Apparently I’m both the smart and the pretty one”. Sebastian playfully threw a tissue at him.

“You are not playing hockey. The risk of concussion is way too high!” Sebastian told Kimi. They were sat at the kitchen table, trying to find something for Kimi to do. Kimi had whined for weeks being bored and that he wanted to get out of the house every now and then. Sebastian had agreed, but it soon became clear that their expectations of a suitable activity were far apart. “Okay, motocross then,” Kimi joked.  
“Absolutely not. How about this cooking class?”  
“What’s the point in having a hobby if you can’t get killed doing it?”  
“There are sharp knives and fire, Kimi. You can get killed in a kitchen. Okay, no cooking classes, too dangerous.”  
“Seb, that’s unfair. You can’t prove that something is actually interesting and then tell me not to do it.”  
“You just volunteered to do the cooking here then.”  
Kimi stuck his tong out at him.

“Karting?”  
“No”  
“Rallying?”  
“No.”  
“Ski jumping?”  
“Why do you want to get yourself killed?”  
“You really don’t see the fun in that?”  
This was the third night they were arguing over this. Sebastian kept offering only boring hobbies like yoga and lace-making while Kimi suggested exclusively potentially lethal activities. This time they were sat at a local bar and Kimi was grumpier than usual, being so close to alcohol without getting any. There was a sudden tap on Sebastian’s shoulder and then they were joined by Minttu and Hanna.  
“What are you boys fighting over now?” Hanna asked.  
“Kimi wants a new hobby, but he refuses to pick anything non-lethal.”  
“And Sebastian refuses to offer anything not boring.”  
“You two are just unbelievably stupid!” Minttu giggled. “Kimi you are actually pretty smart. Why won’t you go study and learn to do something else than killing yourself?” Sebastian brightened up at first but then he noticed the excitement in Kimi’s eyes. “You are not becoming a fire fighter”. Kimi laid back in his chair. “I was actually thinking about astronaut. Better luck next time Seb”. Sebastian couldn’t help but shake his head in disbelief. “As cute as that is, you know very well that someone with epilepsy wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a space rocket”. Kimi pretended to be physically wounded, making the girls laugh in the process.

“I’ve made my decision!” Kimi informed Sebastian while taking off his coat. The weather had been awful and he was certain even his underwear were soaked. “I want to become a hockey coach”. Sebastian stopped midway through a hug. “Is that dangerous?” he asked. “No. I mean I will be on ice but not tackling or anything. It will be interesting, I will start with kids and with time who knows. Maybe one day I’ll get the Olympic medal I always deserved”. Kimi’s face spread into a menacing grin. “I also heard that Ron is back in the game. Revenge is a dish best served cold”.

“ _Ex-hockey player and an experienced trainer Kimi Räikkönen has been chosen to be the head coach of Team Finland for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Räikkönen, who already has last year’s World Championships silver medal under his belt, commented the decision…_ ” Sebastian turned the television off and cuddled closer to Kimi. “How’s the team forming up?” he asked Kimi, who sighed. “You know how NHL is. They don’t like to share. Much like you, now that I think of it,” Kimi ignored Sebastian’s weak protest completely, “They are quite young, but every single one of them has the heart of a true Finnish lion.” Sebastian snorted. “You do realize there are no actual lions in Finland?” Kimi smiled at that. “Well, you could say the same thing about phoenixes and yet, here I am.”


End file.
